I was thinking yesterday and again this morning about the activities and accomplishments that bring meaning and identity to our lives.  And I was thinking further about how the good news of God's love relates to the formation of meaning and identity in our lives.  Everything in the material realm which brings meaning and identity to our lives is relative.  That is to say that there will always be someone we feel superior to or inferior to.
An illustration:  I'm a cyclist.  For many years I lived and road my bike on the quiet flat country roads of rural southern Minnesota and northern Iowa.  I would rarely see another person on a bike and hardly ever anyone who was serious about riding a bike.  I rode pretty hard and fast and grew to think I was a pretty 'hot stuff' on a bike.  Then I moved to Colorado!  The very first day there a neighbor who was also a bike rider saw me hanging my bike in the garage and asked if I wanted to go for a ride with him the next day.  I said,  "sure",  and quickly found out that I wasn't such 'hot stuff' on a bike!
If we find meaning in life and form our identity on activities and accomplishments that are relative we will always be looking up or down on others and basing how we feel about ourselves and others on ever changing standards.
However, the good news tells us that we are of infinite worth to our Heavenly Father, period.  That worth is not based on what we accomplish or how we look but simply that we are and we are loved to death by Him.
This really is good news and it is the good news we are trying to consistently tell here in Clear Creek County Colorado.